The Institute is currently operating from a number of campuses which include IIT Kharagpur Extension Centre at Samantapuri, Toshali Campus at Satyanagar and Workshop cum laboratory complex at Samantapuri. The Government of Odisha has provided us about one (1) acre of land on which we have constructed the Workshop cum Laboratory complex (3,010 sq. meters). The Government of Odisha has also made available two towers at Toshali Bhawan (10,000 sq. meters) which we have renovated. We are also getting generous support, in more ways than one, from Institute of Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Technology (CSIR-IMMT) and Central Tool Room and Training Centre (CTTC). I sincerely thank all the members of these institutions for their continued support.

IIT Bhubaneswar is well equipped with modern class rooms and undergraduate/research laboratories. All the class rooms are fitted with multimedia projectors, internet facilities and wireless connectivity. The Institute has designed and developed three virtual class rooms (VCR) sponsored by National Knowledge Network (NKN). These virtual class-rooms are equipped with high end AV and teaching equipment and are connected to the NKN by means of a dedicated 1Gbps leased line. The VCR facilities provide real time interaction among the students and faculty members of our Institute and those from other institutions.

IITs are known for the de rigueur to have a residential campus in order to facilitate one-to-one human interaction. The Government of Odisha has provided us 14 flats at Government Colony, Gajapati Nagar. We have found cooperation from the housing society in SBI Colony Kesura (10 km from city centre) wherein we have hired 65 HIG/ MIG flats for the accommodation of our students, few of our staff and faculty members. Another hostel at Madanpur (15 km from the city centre) has been provided for M. Tech. students and Ph. D. scholars. In addition, IIT Kharagpur has constructed a new 200 capacity Dr. A. N. Khosla Hall of Residence at Samantapuri for the students of this Institute. I take this opportunity to thank IIT Kharagpur for constructing the hostel which is of great convenience to us. I would also like to put on record my deep appreciation to the students, the staff and faculty members who have to commute regularly between their residence and the various academic campuses. I am aware that this is strenuous. But I am hopeful that our students, faculty and staff members would bear it and be a part of the history in the making.

Permanent Campus

The Foundation Stone of the permanent campus at Arugul (near Jatni) was laid on 12th February 2009. The Government of Odisha allotted 936 acres of land at Arugul for developing this IIT of which the Institute has already taken possession of 598 acres. The Government of Odisha has started construction of a 4-lane access road to the campus from the National Highway No. 5. The work on water and electric supplies to the campus is also in progress. The Government of Odisha has also agreed to provide 75 acres of land on the Puri–Konark coast line to set up an Innovation Centre for Climate Change for the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences.

Out of 19 km, construction of 13 km of boundary wall has been completed. More than 10 bore wells have been sunk to facilitate construction work. The Institute has also taken up tree plantation programme for its new campus.

The master plan of the new campus at Arugul has been approved for 10,000 students, 1000 faculty and 1100 supporting staff and the total construction should be completed in 3-phases in next 12-15 years. The Ground Breaking Ceremony was organized on 14th August 2011. The work for land grading, road and other related construction have started. The Government of India has approved construction of 221,000 sq. meters of covered area in the 1st phase. Our consultant has completed the designing of 130,000 sq. meters of covered areas for various Schools, residential quarters, hostels and other service/administrative buildings for construction based on the availability of fund in the initial phase. Clearances for construction from various statutory bodies have been obtained. The tendering process for part of the construction is over and I am very happy to announce that CPWD has just started the construction of the hostel complex. Our consultant and CPWD are also ready for tendering for the remaining part of construction. The Institute plans to move to its permanent campus by the beginning of 2014.

Academics

Academic Schools We began our journey with a mission to promote a borderless academic environment with the concept of Schools, rather than Departments to enable and encourage the academic staff and students to work in an interdisciplinary environment. Initially the following five (5) schools were set up:

The state of Odisha and neighborhood including the vast coastline is rich in mineral resources and biodiversity. The region is also adversely affected by flood, cyclone and other natural calamities. In view of this, the Institute has set up the following two (2) Schools:

● School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences

● School of Mineral, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

The Institute is also setting up an Innovation Centre for Climate Change on the Puri-Konark coast line. The following Schools are proposed to be set up in the second phase of expansion:

● School of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (Biochemical, Biomedical and Chemical)

● School of Design and Creative Arts

Academic Activities

The Institute started its journey in 2008 with a total of 94 students in three (3) undergraduate programmes viz. Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, with an intake of 40 students in each programme. The Institute has introduced Ph. D. programme from 2009. From July 2012 we have started postgraduate (Joint M. Tech. – Ph. D.) programmes in Electronics & Communication Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Climate Science & Technology, Applied Geoscience and Materials Science & Engineering. The Institute is going to start Joint M. Sc. – Ph. D. program in Chemistry, Earth Science, Physics and Mathematics from the next academic session.

It is heartening to note that the pioneer batch of undergraduate students who are receiving their degree today are all placed. Many of the students have received offer of admission/scholarships from prestigious universities abroad: Stanford University, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Cornel University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Texas, Imperial College of London to name a few.

Research & Development

Activities: In-house, Sponsored, Consultancy Our faculty members, research scholars and undergraduate students have been actively pursuing research in varying areas. The Institute has received a number of sponsored projects from various funding agencies like DST, CSIR, DBT and DRDO and consultancy from industries worth more than Rupees 480 lakhs. The faculty members are also engaged in various consultancy activities. Project proposals worth more than Rupees 700 lakhs have been submitted.

IIT Bhubaneswar has been successful in its bid for the following UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) projects:

Joint Masters and Split-Site Ph. D. Programme: An Integrated Doctoral and Masters Programme with the University of Warwick – To develop an integrated suite of postgraduate joint degree programmes.

Thematic Partnerships Programme 1: UKIERI Thematic Partnership in Low Carbon Materials Technologies, Innovation and Application jointly with the University of Warwick – To enable the rapid and effective introduction of new steel and multi-material combinations, for new applications addressing the global imperative of carbon reduction.

Thematic Partnerships Programme 2: UKIERI Thematic Partnership jointly with the University of Southampton and National Oceanography Centre and University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth – To establish the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar and Marine Campus on the Bay of Bengal.

I would like to highlight in brief the ongoing R&D activities in various Schools:

The School of Basic Sciences is a cluster of disciplines namely Bioscience, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics. The School is carrying out research in the areas of multimetallic catalysis, organometallic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, coordination chemistry, synthesis of natural products and intermediates. The research work in biosciences is focused on understanding the structure and function of various proteins of eye lenses, leprosy, and tuberculosis. The research in high energy physics is focused on understanding fundamental particles and their interaction using theoretical tools such as string theory, and experimental setup in collaboration with CERN, Geneva. Specific areas include conformed field theory, pure spinor formalism of superstrings, super symmetry and black holes. A number of projects have been undertaken in the area of the plasmonics, photonics, ion-surface interactions, design and development of sensors, magnetic grids, energy storage devices and optoelectronic devices. Multidisciplinary work is underway in the area of nanomaterial-based device design, assembling and clustering. On-going research in mathematics includes complex dynamics and fractals, variational inequalities and complementary problems, queuing theory, mechanics, computational fluid dynamics, algebraic graph theory, neural network and artificial intelligence.

The major R & D activities of the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences includes monitoring, prediction and providing mitigation solutions for natural disasters with sound and precise observational network of meteorological, oceanographic, geological and geophysical instruments combined with data-assimilative modeling in a multi-institutional framework and use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), thereby becoming a hub of such activities on the east coast of India with an international presence. The thrust areas are: Climate Modeling, Modeling of extreme events, Cloud Physics, Numerical Weather Prediction, Natural Resources-exploration and utilization, Climate Change and its Effects, Biological Oceanography, Application of the Space Technology for the Study of the Earth System Science, Soil Water Interactions, Waste Utilization, and Pollutant Pathways.

Within 3 years of existence in the city of Bhubaneswar, the faculty members and students have contributed to creating new knowledge by publishing 230 original research papers in National and International Journals of repute, and 20 books/book-chapters. Besides, 128 papers have been presented in various National and International Conferences in India and abroad. Our undergraduate students have also made technical presentations in conferences, nationally and internationally.

Endowment

Industries have come forward to join us in developing this new IIT. The MGM Minerals Group has established a perpetual “MGM Chair Professorship” in the School of Minerals, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering with an endowment of Rs 300 lakhs. In addition the MGM Minerals Group has instituted two awards for best B. Tech. theses (Electrical and Mechanical Engineering) in memory of Tejaswi and Dinesh, two budding students of our Institute, whom we lost in a tragic train accident in March 2011.

Below is a collage of the logos of national level institutes and universities of Odisha. (IIIT is trying to get there.) Note that except NIT Rourkela, which started as an REC in 1961 and became NIT in 2002, the rest have been established in the last 5 years:

The construction of the main campus of NISER is in full swing and is expected to be ready for move-in by the 2013-14 academic year. Although IIT Bhubaneswar has adequate space for its faculty and other academic operations, hostels for students are scattered and is an issue. The construction of the main campus is not in full swing yet and its not known when it will be ready; most likely not before the 2014-2015 academic year.

As of today, NISER has 59 regular faculty and 5 visiting faculty and IIT Bhubaneswar has 64 regular faculty and 6 visiting faculty. For this year IIT has advertised for faculty positions in all areas while NISER has advertised for faculty in only mathematics. However, with the NISER main campus targeted to be ready by 2013-14, NISER will definitely hire a lot of people in 2013-14 and thereafter.

IIT Bhubaneswar started off with 5 schools (Basic Sciences, EE, Mech, Infrastructure, Humanities) and undergraduate programs in 3 subjects (EE, Mech, Civil) and since then has added two more schools (Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences AND Minerals, Metallurgical & Materials Engineering) and both Ph.D and this year jont M.Tech+Ph.D programs. NISER started off with 4 schools (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology) and 5 yr BSc+MSc program in those 4 subjects. It has a Ph.D program. It has not started a direct M.Sc program. It has not yet added new schools that it has plans for. It is expected that some new schools will be added in 2013-14 when the main campus is ready. New schools are planned for in: Earth and Planetary Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Computing Sciences and Engineering Sciences.

As per this Business Standard article out of 35 students that graduated from NISER Bhubaneswar this year 11 are going abroad for Ph.D (to places such as Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Stony Brook), 5 are going to TIFR for PhD, 2 are going to IISc Bangalore, 4 to NII Delhi and 4 to various IITs. This adds up to 26.

Even when a lot of IIT students were going abroad, no department of any IIT was sending so many to pursue Ph.D.

Kudos to NISER to live up to the dreams and goals behind establishing the IISERs and NISER.

India will very soon have the first-ever Innovation Centre for Climate Change (ICCC) to cover the Bay of Bengal. It will come up on the Konark-Puri road. The Centre will function under the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar (IITB).

The Bay of Bengal Coastal Observatory (BOBCO) as it has been named will study the behaviour of the Bay of Bengal. With the completion of the observatory, the country will be able to forecast extreme weather conditions and collect data about the ocean behaviour and numerous other details like the physical, chemical, biological and Geo-scientific data. “All this information will be instrumental in preparing a model for understanding cyclone. We would have understood the 1999 cyclone better if we had this observatory back then,” said Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences Prof Prem Chand Pandey.

Its working will be different from the Meteorological Department (MET) as the ICCC will look into the causes behind the occurrences in the ocean while MET department records the ocean behaviour and gives continuous information.

The ICCC will come up along with the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Science (SEOCS) under IITB. The SEOCS, which will come up at Arugul, will be headed by Prof Subhashish Tripathy. The State Government had allotted around 936 acre land for the construction of the SEOCS. It also recently allotted around 75 acres for setting up of the observatory.

… For the setting up of the observatory, IITB is working closely with University of Massachusetts and University of South Hampton. They will also conduct the Ocean Instrumentation Training Programme to train people with the advanced instruments that will be used in the ICCC. “There will be around 12 faculties initially, but with the gradual growth of the school, more and more experienced faculties will be brought in,” said Tripathy. The recruitment process has already begun. The institute also has ambitious plans to conduct research in the field of land, ocean and atmosphere, added Pandey.

Desirous students with CGPA greater than equal to 8 after the 3rd semester of the M. Tech. programme with an aptitude towards research can opt for Ph. D. Those students with CGPA less than 8 will exit with M. Tech. degree after successfully completing the fourth semester and the credit requirements.

… Number of Seats: 18 in each programme. (Reservation as per GOI norms applicable).

In addition to the above mentioned joint M.Tech/Ph.D program IIT Bhubaneswar has also advertised for direct admission to its Ph.D programs in each of its seven schools .

With these programs added and currently with only 120 B.Tech students admitted per year, IIT Bhubaneswar will have more graduate students (M.Tech and Ph.D) admitted per year than undergraduate students (B.Tech). This is a good direction and IIT Bhubaneswar should strive to have more graduate students than undergraduate students thus putting emphasis on research.

The foundation stone of the permanent campus of the Institute was laid on 12th February, 2009. On the eve of the 65th Independence Day, on 14th August 2011, Sri Naveen Patnaik, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Odisha formally launched the construction of the Phase-1 of the permanent campus of the Institute near Aragul (Jatni) in the presence of Director Professor M. Chakraborty, Deputy Director, Deans, Registrar, Faculty Members, Officers, members of the Staff and students of the Institute and other dignitaries including Hon’ble Member of Parliament Dr P. K. Patsani, and Hon’ble MLAs of Jatni and Khurda. This was preceded by a Bhumi Pujan Ceremony at the site by the Registrar. The Government of Odisha has allotted 936 acres of land for the purpose and 16 acres of private land is being acquired by the Government for making the land contiguous. The Master Plan of the Campus has been designed for 10,000 students, 1000 teachers, and 1100 non-teaching employees besides 1000 plus outsourced support staff including security personnel. The Institute has also a plan for a Research Park. However, the initial construction in the first phase (Phase-1) would cater to 2500 students, 250 faculty members and about 300 other employees. The total investment for the phase-1 has been estimated to be about 800 crores. The construction would cover 2, 21,000 m2 (63000 m2 for academic complex and 1, 58,000 m2 for residential complex) which would include Main Administrative Building, Lecture Hall and Class Room Complexes, Laboratory Complex, Four Academic Schools, Central Workshop and Students’ Activity Centre in the Academic Complex whereas the Residential Complex shall consist of 800 capacity single seater boys’ hostel, 200 capacity girls’ hostel, 80 numbers of Grade A quarters for faculty members and officers and 40 numbers of Grade C quarters for supporting staff, Shopping and Community Centre, Guest House, service centre etc. The Main Building shall be a structure of 6 storeys and that of the other Academic Schools shall be of 4-storey construction. The hostels as well as the residential quarters shall be of G + 7 storey constructions. The Institute plans to start operating from its permanent campus by 2013-14.

Prof. P C Pandey Joins IITBBS

A doctorate in Physics (Microwaves) from Allahabad University, he is credited with the initiation of the satellite borne microwave remote sensing of Ocean Atmosphere and Cryosphere research in India. Professor Pandey was the Founder Director of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa from 1997 to 2005. He has spent a major part of his career at Space Application Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad, and has worked for about five years at the NASA’s world famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA. Professor Pandey has carried out extensive research in the areas of satellite oceanography, atmospheric science, climate change and polar science. He has published more than 100 papers in reputed national and international peer reviewed journals and also written and edited many books. He has guided eleven Ph.D. students. Professor Pandey is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (Bangalore) The National Academy of Sciences (Allahabad), Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Indian Geophysical Union, Geological Society of India and a host other societies. Besides, Professor Pandey has been Member/Chairman of various Committees of Govt. of India from ISRO, DSTM CSIR and has led or participated as member of delegation to various international Forums, notably the International Polar Year (2007- 09). He was also a member of the delegation led by Hon’ble Kapil Sibal to Antarctic, the first ever ministerial delegation to visit Antarctica. Professor Pandey has represented India in various International symposia related to Polar Science and Logistics such as Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) etc. Professor Pandey is the recipient of the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (1989), Professor Vikram Sarabhai Award and Gold Medal, Om Prakash Bhasin Award and Vigyan Ratna Samman Award of U.P. Council of Science and Technology as well as the NASA award.

New Faculty Members joined

Dr. Arun Ghosh joined the School of Electrical Sciences in the month of April 2011. His research areas include Robust Control, Periodic feedback Control.

Dr. Subhransu Ranjan Samantaray joined the School of Electrical Sciences in the month of April, 2011. His research areas include Intelligent protection to transmission systems including FACTs, Microgrids with Distributed Generation and Dynamic security assessment in large power network.

Dr. Neti V. L. N. Murty joined the School of Electrical Sciences in the month of May 2011. His research areas include Semiconductor material & Device characterization, Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Devices, MMICs.

… Bottlenecks continue to hamper the progress of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar (IITBBS).

The IIT authorities in a meeting with Khurda collector Roopa Mishra earlier this week (on November 8 ) raised concern over several issues stalling the work. Mishra, when contacted, said "There are certain issues, which the government has been resolving. It is a continuous process. All matters are being addressed. We hope all problems will be solved."

… the institute is far from its December 2013 deadline to complete first phase work to create facility for 2,500 students, 250 faculty members and 275 support staff.

The institute is yet to get approval from Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) for its building. Sources said the IIT had applied for the approval over one month ago. The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is in the process of floating tenders for construction of hostels. "The tender would be advertised by this month- end," said a CPWD official.

The master plan of the campus has been designed to accommodate 10,000 students, 1,000 faculty, 1,100 non-teaching employees besides 1,000 out sourced support staff. Odisha had allotted 936 acres of land for IIT for the purpose. The Union government has approved construction of 221,000 sq m of covered area (63,000 sq m for academic complex and 158,000 sq m for residential complex) in the first phase for which an outlay of Rs 388 crores has already been provided.

NISER invites application for faculty positions in specific areas of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics at the level of Assistant Professor. Candidates who possess requisite qualification (Ph.D and at least 2-3 years of postdoctoral experience in the relevant area) are requested to send their detailed CV on or before 30th November 2011 to director@niser.ac.in.

As evident from the above Hyderabad and Rajasthan lead in the number of undergraduate courses offered. The main reason the other new IITs offer only 3 courses is because of the lack of facilities in the temporary premises they are operating in. All of them will ramp up their offerings when they move to their permanent campuses. However, the number of faculty sanctioned to an IIT is somewhat proportional to the number of students they have. So by virtue of having more students, IIT Hyderabad and Rajasthan will have more number of faculty sanctioned for them and thus they will have a leg up in hiring faculty.

Following are the logos of the various IITs as obtained from the front page of the IIT JEE 2012 brochure.